Wednesday Medium Miro Hut

January 24th 2018

Most of the nine trampers who signed up for this trip did so out of curiosity, “Where is Miro Hut?” they asked. To access this delightful little hut in the Northern Tararuas involves driving to Tokomaru and then following the at times narrow and winding Scotts Road for about 20 minutes. Given that the parking at the road end is a bit tight we left the Plimmerton rail station car park in two cars kindly driven by Pete and Jan. Once at the road end a foot pad bypasses a locked metal gate and we started climbing a low saddle on a metal road. Since my last visit, some three to four years ago, there appeared to be more roads and fewer trees. We followed the M1 and then Loop road which we turned off to access a route to the ridge. After morning tea at the bush line we continued to the top of the ridge and followed south to Bump 686. On the way we encountered a patch of tall grass which completely masked the trail. When heading south just go straight to the left of two sickly looking pine trees. By parting the grass the foot pad is obvious. Once through the grass the trail is on a cut route which in places needs a hair cut. The descent to the hut is on a well maintained track passing some fine miro. A particular point of interest is a small patch of the giant moss Dawsonia superba (see picture p. 20) looking like a clump of pine tree seedlings. Lunch at Miro Hut (approximate position marked X on the map) in the sun was relaxed. The hut is in a small bush clearing and is constructed of punga logs. It was well maintained showing no evidence of damp inside but had had recent visitors. After lunch we retraced our steps and in doing so found a better route than that followed in the morning: best is to follow the M1 and then follow Scrub Hill road not Loop road. The top of Scrub Hill road leads directly to an old logging road which leads south towards Bump 686.